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Big bream


Anderoo

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Most definitely! Then trying to work out why it was successful,fine tune and repeat! And at the moment as he has no other similar experience to draw on Andrew is doing just that and given the fact that he has now caught a couple of big bream by design what he is doing seems a good enough starting point to me!

 

Like I tried to bring up in an earlier post this isn't all about Wingham! however from what Ive seen there aint much difference between most of these SB/LSD waters.The more different things we read about from others fishing other waters with big bream in the better. I want my theories questioned I want to hear new ones It is hard to have things you know are fact/have worked/are working being constantly questioned though.I myself always try to make the point of saying what I know and what I think as they are two very different things.

 

Quite right Budgie, it's been a very steep learning curve as I have no relevant experience to draw on. Although sometimes I think that may have helped me in a way, no hangups to overcome. But a lot of the time, especially at the beginning, I found it very hard (but extremely absobing and interesting).

 

What you say about Wingham is right too. I must try harder to not relate everything back to Wingham, because this topic wasn't about that. This is quite hard too, as I haven't fished for big bream anywhere else. Not yet, anyway!

 

The thing that would really help me along now is time. More time on the bank would, I'm sure, result in more bream caught. Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury.

 

I always saw these bream as a problem that could be solved. I wanted not to just catch one, but know why I caught it.

 

You might find this ineresting - a couple of extracts from my fishing notebook from when I've had bream. It illustrates why I think baiting is the real key to catching, and the one thing we have complete control over.

 

4 July 2008 [last fish caught was 5lb 9oz tench at 9.20pm the previous evening]

4.30am a bream! ... [3 pages of blathering]...[i then did the weighing and photos, and recast]

5.40am a heavy fish just rolled right over the bream spot - I think they might still be there

5.55am another one rolled right over my rig, the line even shuddered

6.15am 6lb 8oz tench on middle rod [tench then wake up and bream leave]

 

10 September 2010 [last fish caught 7lbish tench at 5pm]

9.10pm liners on rod 3 - got to be bream [tiny liners persist for 20 minutes]

9.30pm it was bream! ...[more blathering]...[did photos and weighing but didn't recast as bream still in the swim]

9.50 still getting little liners on rod 2

[bream then get nervous and leave the swim, recast rod 3 at 10.45pm once I was sure they'd gone]

 

In both cases, the few bream in the swim continued to feed on the baited spot after one had been caught. In the first case, I think if it hadn't been getting light and the tench hadn't switched on, I'd have had a second. They were feeding so hard even a recast didn't spook them. In the second case, I had a 20-minute window for a second bite. I think the problem (if you can call it that) here was that I'd had a fish so early on. If those fish had fed for a couple of hours or more before I had one, I think hey'd have carried on feeding for longer after, giving me a better shot at a second. Still, as it was I still had those 20 minutes.

 

In both cases, there was a couple of hours of spodding needed to get the groundbait out there.

 

Contrast to the bream I fluked in 2009 while tenching. That was from a very lightly baited spot close in at 3am, and the rest of that group shot off as soon as it was hooked.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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I don't think my ideas on big bream can be that far out as Ive held my own with the top rods on most of the waters Ive fished and on the only one I haven't (Queenford) I was one of the highest numbers catchers but just couldn't get the better fish.

 

Were there plenty of small bream in Queenford then Budgie? I didn't know that, I thought there were just the 80-odd adult fish...

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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Were there plenty of small bream in Queenford then Budgie? I didn't know that, I thought there were just the 80-odd adult fish...

Back then 15lb was the mark.I had several fish up to 13lb 15 ozs (my pre Wingham PB) but nothing bigger.Smallest I had was an 11.10 with a further 7 fish of over 12 only two (including PB) of which were over 13. This was over the two seasons I fished there. Three the first season and five the second.Considering many of the "names" went seasons without catching or caught less I thought I was doing pretty well.I just couldn't get one of the real lumps!

 

I never had a multiple catch there. I spoke to a few of the guys years later about this and suggested that I had been doing something wrong.Those who had caught the bigger fish thought that I must have been doing some thing different and despite comparing methods,baits etc (as we were all quite open with each other,even between different rotas) couldn't see anything other than I tended to fish bigger baits and use more feed than most.

 

Those who hadn't caught anything just suggested I was an ungrateful bastard!

 

Just looking through my old catches has really put this whole big bream thing in perspective.In the day the Queenford catches were really out of this world! a lot of real good anglers put in a lot of time for these fish and now what we caught looks pathetic! Go back just a few more years to Peter Stones day and the fish him and his peers caught while developing gravel pit angling............................how times have changed for us snotty lovers!

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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What?! For some reason I thought you never had a bream from Queenford, and now I find out you had 8 in two seasons! And up to 13.15 as well, which must have been enormous then, even if Queenford was producing 15lb+ fish.

 

Were they from the same swims others had the bigger bream from, or different ones?

 

I could be wrong, but my gut feeling is that you nailed it straight away, and if you'd have carried on fishing there for a few more seasons I bet the bigger ones would have turned up.

 

I am impressed :)

 

PS from memory, I think in 8 years Tony Miles had 4 bream - one 15lb+, two 14lb+ and one 12 or 13lb+ (I'll check later). So apart from one of the bigger ones, the rest of his were about on a par with yours, give or take a few ounces.

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And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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Blimey, Budgie, I thought you said you didn't have any big bream from Queenford!! :o

 

Reminds me of a certain AN member who posted on another topic that 8lb Wingham tench were small? Anyone spring to mind? :P

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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Just been talking on the phone to Budgie and he said that by today's standards those bream weren't that big.

 

Everything's relative of course. I mentioned that one year in the early 80s my chub of 5-01 1/2 was the biggest to be reported by a Chub Study Group member until the final few days of the season - there just weren't the 6 pound chub around in those days.

 

Then the penny dropped.

 

"Those days" were almost 30 years ago! :o

Wingham Specimen Coarse & Carp Syndicates www.winghamfisheries.co.uk Beautiful, peaceful, little fished gravel pit syndicates in Kent with very big fish. 2017 Forum Fish-In Sat May 6 to Mon May 8. Articles http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/steveburke.htm Index of all my articles on Angler's Net

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That is exactly why I found it so frustrating mate.Sounds ungrateful when lots are blanking but its maddening. One of the guys on the other rota who had fished there before me had been in a similar situation but as he was no longer a member when I was I never had the chance to compare notes. In fact the only details I had were from Derek and he was on a different rota then as well.

 

Regards swims I did tend to fish the same few.These were always the "known" swims as I always managed to get down there before most others as I liked to try and chat with the guys on the other rota (possibly knew them better than the ones on my own as once fishing none of us were that keen on leaving our swims!) as such normally had first choice.

 

Marsh used to call me the "vulture"! as I would obviously try the swim that had produced (if any had) the previous week. "Alastairs Bar" and "Knowlesies" were my most productive but the little fished swim next to "the Starbar" was where I had (although never caught there) often experienced (liners etc) the most bream activity. As such I did keep going back there to try and catch the fish that were obviously present a lot of the time.

 

One thing I will say though is that a lot of the fish we caught in my time were down to the effort put in by the original guys who fished in the 80's they were the true pioneers.

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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As I said to Steve on the phone I had to go up into the loft the other day to get some rods for a guy.Whilst up there I remembered a previous conversation we had recently had regarding keeping notes and how memory couldn't be relied on! I had a good dig around and found a couple of my old note books (I stopped keeping detailed records some years back) Sad though it may sound I had a really nice hour or so sat up in a freezing cold loft on a bait bucket reading through some of my old stuff.Queenford breaming in the early 90's and some bream and Tench fishing ones from Tring in the late 80's, with the ultra boring carp ones from Lydd from the same period!

 

Biggest thing that struck me was just how much higher the bar is set these days for big fish! The fish I was targeting back then were regarded as monsters only two waters in the whole country could/had produced fish of this size (TC Pit) Although the fish I caught were at the bottom end of the "Monster" scale many would blatantly disbelieve me until I showed them photos! Now we talk of 15's as though they are common place and in comparison they very nearly are! I used to ridicule talk of 20's now these are a reality on a couple of venues.

 

I wonder what the likes of Peter Stone and co would think if they were still chasing bream today!when 7's were their 18's!.

 

Like Steve said how time flys!

And thats my "non indicative opinion"!

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